{"id":74893,"date":"2026-04-20T15:37:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/74893\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T15:37:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:37:40","slug":"baltic-nations-brace-for-impact-of-iran-war-delaying-us-weapons-shipments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/74893\/","title":{"rendered":"Baltic nations brace for impact of Iran war delaying US weapons shipments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">WARSAW, Poland \u2014 The United States government has flagged possible delays linked to the Iran war in deliveries of weapons and ammunition to the three Baltic States, the prime ministers of Estonia and Lithuania announced during an April 17 joint press conference. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cYes, the U.S. has informed us of the situation, and we understand the reasoning and the circumstances. And we are in close contact with them \u2026 [for] discussions [on] how to address these supply challenges,\u201d Estonia\u2019s Prime Minister Kristen Michal said. \u201cAnd the U.S. remains our biggest ally. The troops are here, connections are strong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginien\u0117 stated at the conference that, while her government does not see \u201ca big problem so far\u201d with regard to the planned deliveries of U.S. military gear to Lithuania, Vilnius has also been informed of changes to supply schedules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cWe understand that some of the \u2026 deadlines, they are moving,\u201d Ruginien\u0117 said at the conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">Latvian Prime Minister Evika Sili\u0146a commented that her Cabinet has \u201cnot been officially informed yet\u201d by the U.S. of any changes to the delivery schedule of the contracted gear.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cBut, sure, we all can read news, and we are looking very closely [at] what\u2019s going on,\u201d Sili\u0146a said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">The prime ministers\u2019 statements follow recent reports of potential delays in U.S. weapon deliveries to several European countries, including allies in the Baltic region and Scandinavia, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/04\/17\/us-to-delay-weapons-deliveries-to-some-european-countries-due-to-iran-war-sources-say\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2026\/04\/17\/us-to-delay-weapons-deliveries-to-some-european-countries-due-to-iran-war-sources-say\/\">as reported by Reuters<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">On April 18, Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told local broadcaster ERR his country\u2019s main concern is related to possible delays in the procurement of ammunition for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/global\/europe\/2022\/12\/05\/estonia-buys-himars-as-eastern-allies-boost-artillery-arsenals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems<\/a>, or HIMARS. In April 2025, the Estonian Defence Forces received the first six HIMARS the country ordered in 2022. Earlier this month, Tallinn placed an order for a further three systems made by Lockheed Martin, with deliveries scheduled for 2027. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cWhat we do know is that ammunition deliveries have been put on hold, and we will try to gather as much information as possible and see whether this affects all allies and will remain in force for all of them, or whether, for example, exceptions will be made,\u201d Pevkur said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">\u201cIf they are delayed for a longer period, then what are the alternatives or backup options? Even in the case of HIMARS, it is theoretically possible to use ammunition from other manufacturers, but that would again require permission from Lockheed Martin and the U.S. government, so that other ammunition could also be used in it,\u201d the minister stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-sc-1tqpf5s-0 bFwqVI body-paragraph body-paragraph\">Alongside Estonia, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/global\/europe\/2022\/07\/26\/latvia-requests-himars-weapon-to-bolster-baltic-defense\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Latvia<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.defensenews.com\/pentagon\/2022\/12\/16\/lithuania-signs-495-million-deal-to-buy-himars-atacms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Lithuania<\/a> have also purchased HIMARS for their respective militaries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"default__BioWrapper-sc-cy7r53-0 eATlTY a-body2\">Jaroslaw Adamowski is the Poland correspondent for Defense News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARSAW, Poland \u2014 The United States government has flagged possible delays linked to the Iran war in deliveries&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1530,7078,2930,9039,27392,27393,34,27391,23718,733],"class_list":{"0":"post-74893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-iran","8":"tag-circulated-defense-news","9":"tag-defense-news","10":"tag-dn-dnr","11":"tag-estonia","12":"tag-foreign-military-sales","13":"tag-himars","14":"tag-iran","15":"tag-latvia","16":"tag-lithuania","17":"tag-lockheed-martin"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116437781368144834","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}